With the much hyped and awaited iphone 8 and iphone X release, and realizing they are outrageously out of budget, I thought it is time we dive deep in Chinese technology to find options that are more suitable.
With the much-hyped and long-awaited iPhone 8 and iPhone X release, and the realization that they are outrageously out of budget, I thought it time we dive deep into Chinese technology to find options that are more suitable.
photo: express.co.uk
As of April 2017, Huawei has a majority market share in the mobile phone market in China, and has taken over Apple’s global sales, ranking #2 after Samsung in worldwide smartphone markets.
In China, the leading mobile companies are Huawei (22.8%); Oppo (16.5%), Vivo (15.9%), Apple (11.6%) and Xiaomi (11.2%).
Photo: Wonderful Engineering
Looking at these figures and being as inquisitive as I am, I found myself pondering what the very tech-challenged laowai thought of how Android phones operate in China with the Google ban. To clear this up, I did some reading. As it turns out, Android was first developed as an operating system by Android Inc. which was bought (like every major tech acquisition) by global giant Google in 2005. Ever since, Android has been further developed and released as an operating system on devices since 2007. Currently, it exists with an open-source license, often with proprietary components that link back to the Google Play Store. The Play Store – Google’s app store for their Android-based phones and licensed to other companies that buy the Google app store license – is estimated to have 2.7 billion applications as of mid-2017. With 2 billion active monthly users, it is the most-installed operating system in the world of tech.
However, with the complete ban of Google and its services in 2014, China has increasingly surfaced as an alternate app store market.
Photo: EVE Updates
Here is your go to guide to using android stores on Chinese based phones. You can thank me later for this super helpful information.
The biggest app store in China is the Myapp store, owned by Tencent Media with over a quarter of the market coverage. The brighter side of choosing this app store is always getting an early release of Wechat updates compared to other app stores. They use the pre-release as a marketing strategy to boost their install ratio and so far, it seems to be working wonders for them, keeping them in the lead with a 10% market margin.
Photo: Internet
The 360 mobile assistant, owned by second-place search engine Qihoo, comes in second with a 15% coverage ratio followed by the Xiaomi App Store (non-exclusive to Xiaomi phones, and can be downloaded onto any Android-based device), the Baidu app store and the Xiaomi Game Center to finish out the top 5.
Photo: Internet
Considering how huge Huawei and Oppo are, they have recently begun to branch out to launch their own app stores (Huawei Market and the Oppo Appstore) which to this day remain bigger than the Google App Store in China..
Photo：Internet
An honorable mention goes to Wandoujia, the wonder product of China. This is an independent app store startup with over $120 million in venture capital funding. The owners have negotiated deals with top cell phone companies to bring in an estimated 800,000 installations a day at last count. However, the now-distant 91 Market was China’s first app store startup and was bought by Baidu In 2012 in a bid to overcome their competition. It still runs on its own name though.
Photo: Happy Labs
Hi Market also deserves a mention on this list solely for being the grey market star performer on our list of app stores. Often found on smuggled/tax-free imported phones from Hong Kong, it feels shady to use but considering the grey market in China is a mega business, one cannot rule out its existence and the leading app store that brings in pre-installed app on phones.
Photo: Internet
Having as many as ten alternate app store options, I don’t see why switching loyalties from Apple’s App Store will be hard for people living in China. Prestige value aside, the holes iPhones are set to burn in our pockets are very real. Unless one of you is willing to buy me a new iPhone (I’d like to request the iPhone X if you’re in a gifting mood,) I think I’m good with using Chinese technology for the foreseeable future.
Photo: Internet
Let us know in comments what is your preferred app store and why you prefer it.
Born and raised in India, educated in Mumbai, London and Shanghai, khushboo khanna or 香香 as she goes by, is a media consultant and freelance writer. With 6 degrees in media and journalism, she’s forever on the move. In her words, if one were to describe her, she’d say “Wanderess wanderess weave us a story of seduction and ruse, heroic be the wanderess, the world be her muse.” Inspire her with a story, be her muse.
